Children’s Hospital at Waltham lays out building plans

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As representatives of Children’s Hospital Boston at Waltham
told the City Council last week that they hope to eventually add 110,000 square feet to the facility on Hope Avenue
, councilors and local residents said they are worried about an expansion’s effect on traffic along Highland Street.

The construction, which would not start until the hospital submits a special permit review plan and receives city approval, would bring the facility at the site of the former Waltham Hospital to just under 500,000 square feet.

Children’s Hospital moved into its Waltham satellite location in 2005. The expansion was part of a trend among Boston hospitals to move services into the suburbs to attract more patients and offer more convenience at a time when suburban hospitals were closing.

The hospital wants to demolish some older buildings on the property, build a three-story clinical space, and add a new entrance pavilion and loading zone. It will also nearly double the parking to 1,800 spaces and replace the current power plant with a more sustainable co-generation plant, representatives said at a council meeting last Monday.

“Waltham would benefit because we would take down old, deteriorating buildings and an ancient power plant that is held together with Band-Aids and Scotch tape, and replace it with a state-of-the-art sustainable facility,” said Charles Weinstein, the hospital’s vice president of real estate planning and development, at the public hearing.

Three years ago, the City Council asked the hospital to compile a long-term master plan, after it had sought permission to make changes to a parking lot next to the Charles River.

“Our primary purpose is to respond to the 2009 City Council asking for any type of plan,” said Robert E. Connors Jr., a Waltham-based lawyer representing the hospital.

‘We’re looking down the road to a time where the physical facility in place now could no longer handle the capacity.’

“We’ve had nice growth since 2005,” Weinstein said. “We’re looking down the road to a time where the physical facility in place now could no longer handle the capacity.”

Hospital representatives said they had no projected timeline of when they were hoping to start construction, since the time also depends on city approval.

“This is not in our capital budget for fiscal year 2014 or 2015, but it needs to be in our long-term budget,” Weinstein said. “This is not in our three-year or five-year capital plan, but that’s not to say it wouldn’t be beyond that.”

However, Weinstein said the hospital hopes to build all the additions in one fell swoop of 12 to 16 months rather than in phases.

Weinstein also said the hospital views the Waltham location as “the flagship” of its satellite locations because of its size, and hopes to collaborate with the council to meet its expansion goals.

“When we opened in Wal­tham in 2005, we occupied a small clinic of 25,000 square feet,” he said. “Now, we have 300,000 square feet, and offer the full range of services here that are also offered at our Longwood Avenue campus’’ in Boston.

Many councilors commended the hospital for recent sustainability awards it received from the US Environmental Protection Agency, and glowing national accreditation reviews. However, many also noted that they worried about how the new entrance and added parking would burden traffic in the area.

One resident, who identified herself as a 50-year Highland Avenue resident, said although she respects the hospital, she worries about adding traffic congestion to the neighborhood.

“When they built the new school on South Street, that added new traffic, and now there are lots of young families moving onto the street,” she said. “I don’t object, I just hope they do a traffic study and lower the amount of cars going onto Highland Street.”

Hospital representatives said they compiled a preliminary traffic review, and are prepared to dedicate a portion of the property to widen Highland Street.

“Right now, there’s only one turn, so if a person wants to take a left turn towards Bran­deis, they tie up the traffic behind them,” Connors said. “This way, a person behind them can take a right-hand turn, and this would come out of the hospital’s side.”

However, Robert Logan, the Ward 9 city councilor, said he is also concerned about the lane traveling in the other direction, which would not be widened.

Logan said the study showed that during the peak travel time from 8 to 9 a.m., approximately 117 cars would take a left turn to reach the hospital, potentially tying up traffic behind them.

“I can’t picture 117 vehicles in an hour making a left turn into the property and not creating a problem,” Logan said. “You absolutely will have backups there.”

Other councilors offered advice. George Darcy III, the Ward 3 city councilor, said he also sees the opportunity for the hospital to make sweeping infrastructure improvements by connecting to pedestrian and biking trails, and recommended looking into adding a commuter rail station behind the property.

“I believe this is a unique opportunity not to just focus on vehicular access, but also on trains and building a new train station, one that both your facility could use and the new Watch Factory could take advantage of,” Darcy said. “You would only have to go 25 feet to the rail line. That wouldn’t be that much more of a project, in my mind.”

However, councilors said they look forward to working with the hospital.

“There’s a lot of food for thought tonight,” said state Representative Thomas M. Stanley, a Waltham Democrat, who also sits on the council. “The City Council really laid the groundwork a few years back enabling something like this to happen in the city of Waltham. We received a lot of criticism 10 years ago, but it’s the collective foresight and hard work and diligence that has allowed Waltham to receive such a world-renowned institution in our community.”

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